1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information providing system and an information providing method capable of searching information required for a user to execute his/her scheduled activity to provide it to the user.
2. Related Background Art
Accessing information of the Internet using mobile communication terminals such as cellular phones is generally prevailing. However, as information of the Internet increases, it becomes more difficult for users of mobile communication terminals to obtain appropriately selected desired information. For example, when users of mobile communication terminals are going to execute their scheduled activities smoothly, they desire to obtain detail information required for this.
For example, users may utilize a directory type of search engine intended for mobile communication terminals in order to obtain their desired information. The directory type of search engine refers to a service for searching information relating to a plurality of links of web-sites of the Internet, which is classified into each category. As one example thereof, the directory type of search engine intended for mobile communication terminals operated by Rakuten Inc., etc. is listed.
However, if users input into the directory type search engine intended for mobile communication terminals without designating appropriate search keywords, there may be a case that they require a large amount of work to reach the desired information. Further, since input/output functions and operationality provided for mobile communication terminals are limited compared to those of personal computers, etc., it is difficult for users to obtain their desired information by searching with little operation.
Here, there exists, for example, a problem-solving database search system, for example, disclosed in the following patent document 1 as a system supporting information searches of users who are not able to designate appropriate search keywords. This system, firstly searches which word in the dictionary database is matched by a word input by a user, and indicates a navigation sentence linked to the searched word hierarchically. Then, this system provides information on the basis of the navigation sentence selected by the user.
In addition, as a system delivering a regional information matching users' activities, for example, an information providing system intended for mobile terminals disclosed in the following patent document 2 is listed. This system retrieves from regional information registered in an information management database, matching regional information adapted to spatial location information, desired conditions for spatial range, and desired conditions for contents received from users' mobile communication terminals to deliver the matching regional information to the mobile communication terminals.
In this information providing system intended for mobile terminals, when retrieving the matching regional information from the regional information registered in the information management database, it is expected that the regional information more adapted to the users' activities is retrieved and provided to the users by searching with a searching method disclosed in the following patent document 1.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-123541    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-319428
However, in the case that a search keyword designated by a user matches a plurality of words in a dictionary database, a lot of operation to select an appropriate navigation sentence among two or more ones, is required. Consequently, there exists a problem that it is difficult to obtain detail information required for executing scheduled activity smoothly.